Lady Gaga: Queen of Pop and ... Data Mining?

Monday, January 13, 2014 - 12:11pm

Big Data has a lot of indisputable uses in big business, but Lady Gaga's manager proved it has a place in the field of entertainment as well. According to the South China Morning Post, Troy Carter, manager of the pop sensation Lady Gaga, used the singer's millions of social media followers to promote her albums and merchandise.

The source noted that Carter created a fan website for Lady Gaga, Littlemonsters.com, which acts as a form of social media for diehard fans. This way, any revenue generated from the site isn't subject to cuts to Facebook or Twitter, on which Lady Gaga has roughly 51 million and 31 million followers, respectively.

Big Data has proved useful in 2013, even for those who aren't pop icons. According to InformationWeek, the CIA is recruiting individuals to be data scientists. It's unclear how the CIA will use Big Data exactly, but it can be presumed that the business phenomenon will come in handy for the government agency.

"All of CIA's directorates -- the National Clandestine Service and the Directorates of Intelligence, Support and Science and Technology -- are looking for curious, creative individuals interested in serving their country through the field of data science," said the job posting on CIA.gov.

According to the source, gaming companies are also reaping the rewards of Big Data mining. Gamers are among the most engaged computer users, which makes it simple for business intelligence solutions to glean trends and harvest data. Gamers' interactions with each other will surely lead to interesting product developments and customer service innovations that could change the face of gaming as we know it.

"Out company is recording very deep behavioral data on millions of players per month, and we're capturing billions of behaviors and actions on a monthly basis," Kris Duggan, CEO of Badgeville, a startup that sells technology to collect data, told IW.

There are many business intelligence solutions to help turn your company around in 2014. Big Data mining can help your company improve its image, increase sales revenue, get ahead of the competition, and refine its customer service. From gathering and addressing complaints on social media to discerning location-based trends to better your business, Big Data is one tool your enterprise can use in the new year.

Though there's no substitute for intuition in a creative industry, but big data certainly has its place in steering young designers and major fashion houses alike in the right direction for their next big show.